FIDO

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Lionsgate
Grade: C
Directed by: Andrew Currie
Written By: Robert Chomiak, Andrew Currie, Dennis Heaton, story by Dennis Heaton
Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, K'Sun Ray, Henry Czerny, Tim Blake Nelson
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/30/07
Opens: June 15, 2007

You’ve got to give director Andrew Currie credit for doing the near-impossible. He got Billy Connolly, the title character in his comedy, to keep his mouth shut for the entire hour and one-half. At the same time, however, that proves to be the picture’s weakness, as the Scottish actor’s greatest talent is his verbal humor. As we watch Billy simply grunting like a dog, a pathetic beast at that, he’s simply not funny, and without the Connolly wit, “Fido” may be classified as social satire, as political parody, even as some Douglas-Sirk style melodrama, but in those genre boxes it’s all old hat. Oh yes, there is just one trace of originality: a fully living human adult gives a zombie a passionate kiss smack on the lips. If you’ve ever seen that before, then for you “Fido” lacks all originality. Aside from that, even at its normal running time, the gags pall, the movie drags, and you may want to call out someone like John Waters to put some more real flavor into the proceedings.

As social satire, “Fido” is a comic-book version of “American Beauty.” Filmed in Canada’s East British Columbia town of Kelowna, one which stands in for the most cartoonish types of American suburbs (no sidewalks, everyone concerned with keeping-up-with-the-Joneses), “Fido” is filmed in pastel colors by Jan Kiesser to project a 1950's ambience. Cars have split windshields. Nobody walks except the zombies, who have been tamed by ZomCom, a prosperous corporation five miles outside of the residential area led by security chief Mr. Bottoms(Henry Czerny)–who works for a corporation that has devised a collar that converts the living dead into tame servants who wait upon residents who can afford them. The zombies could become dangerous, however, if the collar becomes as dysfunctional as some of the citizens, the principal ones being prim Helen Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss), her emotionally distant husband, Bill Robinson (Dylan Baker), and their regularly bullied and lonely eleven-year-old son, Timmy (K’Sun Ray).

When Helen, concerned about being the only resident without a zombie, acquires one for her family, her friendless boy Timmy names him Fido (Billy Connolly), teaches him to play catch, and becomes truly alive. The principal point being made by scripters Robert Chomiak, Dennis Heaton (who wrote the original story) and the director appears to be that the undead Fido is more alive than the boy’s father–the latter more concerned about pre-paying for the family funerals and for his subscription to Death magazine than for any other of life’s material goods. The key speech in the movie occurs near the conclusion as dad gives his son a gift and a chat, not about the birds and the bees, but about what’s important in life–and what the father considers important is pretty much the opposite of what the story-tellers mean for us to consider among life’s priorities.

Motif-wise, there’s something of everything in this film–Marxism, family dysfunction, melodrama, comedy, social satire. Too bad Billy Connolly’s collar is kept on so tight. Without his loopy mania, the proceedings throughout are all too restrained.

Rated PG-13. 91 minutes © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online